Social well-being among adolescents in secondary schools in the Ibadan metropolis: a correlational perspective

Abstract

Unprecedented discomfort in living with one another and living for one another is a global challenge. This has brought about loss of lives and property as well as global degradation. This study investigated on the predictors of social well-being among adolescents in secondary schools in Ibadan North Local Government Area (LGA), of Oyo State. The correlational research design of the ex-post facto type was adopted in this study with a randomly sampled population of 300 adolescent students (male= 119, female= 181) from secondary schools in Ibadan North Local Government Area (LGA). Three research questions were raised and answered at 0.05 level of significance using Pearson's product moment correlation and multiple linear regression analysis. The result showed that social well-being positively correlated with emotional intelligence (r= .967, p< 0.01), peer influence (r = .545, p<0.01), family structure (r= .497, p<0.01), self-esteem (r = .220, p<0.05) and school environment (r= -.324, p<0.01). This implies that the higher the peer influence, family structure, self-esteem and emotional intelligence, the higher the likelihood of experiencing social well-being. The most potent factor was emotional intelligence (Beta = .967, t= 48.254, P<0.01), followed by self-esteem (Beta = .456, t= 7.069, P<0.01) A followed by peer influence (Beta = .866, t = 13.442, P<0.01). This implies that increased influence of self-esteem will improve students' social well-being by 45.6%, peer influence will increase social well-being by 86.6%, while emotional intelligence will increase social well-being by 96.7%. The study enjoins school counsellors to come up with programmes on emotional intelligence that Will help students develop healthy social well-being to cope with the demands of life. Policy makers and educational stakeholders need to advocate the inclusion of emotional intelligence or emotional education as a subject to be taught in Nigerian conventional schools to enhance students' social well-being and curb the social menace.